I set off with feigned confidence, heading east. I recalled the sun sinking to my back as I’d approached the marketplace in the late afternoon during my time under Mother Shade, so it was my best guess.
The city swallowed me up as I slipped through green canyons made of fern-covered buildings, birds fluttering away from my footsteps. Vines and trees covered the spires that stretched to the clouds, and I couldn’t help but crane my neck and stare in wonder.
This place had once been a human city, long ago. Humans had built these spires and towers of steel and paved these roads with stone. Before the Sworn existed, we had made our mark on the earth. We had ruled.
And then, they’d arrived and taken that place from us.
Black-masked Sworn prowled past in the distance, some glancing at me from afar. I kept to backways, avoiding the eyes of the black-masked soldiers. A few humans scuttled here and there as I passed, some carrying baskets or barrels and walking with brisk purpose, others gliding furtively in a way that made me wonder if they had a seed at all…
Suddenly, I realized.
No.
My hand flew to the back of my neck, where the seed that marked me as a legally-allowed human still missing. I’d completely forgotten in the wake of the revelation that Kassian might be in love with someone else.
I ducked into a side ally smothered in leafy vines and pressed my back to a wall. I was not under any delusions that my status as the wife of the Silver Wolf made me invincible. The Sworn were loyal, rule-driven, disciplined, and fierce. They were not given to casual mercies.
And Kassian didn’t even want me here. I couldn’t count on his connections to save me when I did risky things.
Footsteps sounded in the street. I held my breath and didn’t move as two Sworn strolled by. They hesitated, lifting their heads to scan the surroundings as their nostrils flared.
My heart flopped against my rib cage. Could they smell me? Were they suspicious because of my lack of seed?
Finally, the Sworn moved on.
I deliberated what to do. I’d already come this far, and once I reached the market, I would blend in with the scent of the hundreds of other human shoppers and shopkeepers. My lack of seed wouldn’t attract attention there, because the Sworn wouldn’t take note of me long enough to check for the scent of it.
I scanned the leafy-green thoroughfare before slipping from my alley hiding place and heading once more in the direction of where I guessed the marketplace to be. Dappled sunlight rippled across the path, the light shifting with the breeze. I could smell cooking somewhere to my left, and hear a burst of laughter to my right, coming from a window high in one of the forested towers.
I was about to lose hope when I saw the fluttering banners of the marketplace. I rushed toward the press of shoppers that would shield me from the notice of the Sworn.
Humans filled the thoroughfares here, and I was invisible among them. Young girls with baskets over their arms haggled with merchants over fruit and fresh-caught game from the forest, and young men carried crates on their shoulders. The Sworn soldiers stood at intersections, watching everything from behind their black wolf masks, but their gazes passed over me without interest.
I was just another human girl, unremarkable, unimportant.
As I made my way through the market and in the direction of Snow’s shop, I passed Sworn young people wrestling joyfully on a wide, flat green and using teamwork to scale a wall of timber. An older, grizzled Sworn occasionally barked orders at them. I wondered if he was their tutor, or their drill sergeant.
I moved without fear of being seen by one of Mother Shade’s Chosen girls, for they were only allowed to walk to the marketplace in the afternoons, and it was midmorning. I did see a flutter of white here and there, attached to bowed-over figures with white masks covering their faces. They looked like ghosts among the color and vivacity of the market.
Last of all, I passed the place I most dreaded to see.
The wives’ circle.
The formerly Chosen women stood tall and proud, swathed in their black veils, their skin inked with the tattoos that forever proclaimed them mates to the Sworn. Children played at their feet, toddling and crawling like a herd of chubby puppies in the grass.
Gathering my resolve around me like armor, I passed the wives in black veils and headed for Snow’s shop.
I was almost to it when fingers closed roughly over my shoulder, and a male voice exclaimed, “Hey, aren’t you the girl who defeated Lord Kryf last night?”
I tried to shake him off, but he swung me around to get a better look at my face. He was tall and muscled, dressed like a butler, and young-looking.
“It’s you,” he said. “You’re the one who humiliated my master.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His brows lifted. “Now I know you’re lying. You can’t have missed the talk in the kitchens and at the wells.”
“I never listen to talk,” I said, and tried to twist free.
His fingers were strong as steel.
“What are you doing here?” he continued. “Have you run away from the Silver Wolf?”
Other people were beginning to look.
“You’re mistaken,” I hissed. “Now, let me go—”
But his grip only tightened on my arm.
“I’m taking you to Kryf.”
CHAPTER SIX
I STRUGGLED AGAINST the viselike grip of the young man who held me fast. I was debating an elbow to his face or a knee to his balls when a girl pushed through the crowd.
“Bellarissa!” she called, and I realized it was Snow, wrapped in a brown cloak and cowl.
“Can’t you ever return straight to the shop? Father is furious at your dallying. Who is this? Your newest lover?” She turned an icy glare at the young man holding my shoulder.
“He thinks I’m someone else,” I said through gritted teeth. “He thinks I’m—”
“That Chosen girl who fought Lord Kryf? Yes,” Snow said with a snort, “and so does half this marketplace. It’s strange how their faces resemble each other, but believe me, you haven’t accidentally bumped into the new wife of the Silver Wolf here.” Snow added a derisive chuckle to underscore how absurd an idea this was. “Come on, Belly.”
Her confidence was so bewitching that the young man released me with a muttered apology and stepped back. Snow grabbed my arm and dragged me away. The crowds closed around us, and I could breathe again.
“Bellarissa?” I said under my breath.
“It’s my little sister’s name,” Snow murmured. “First thing that came to my mind. Yes, she hates her name, and the resulting nicknames.”
I snorted despite my still-trembling limbs. Any name that got shortened to Belly must be odious.
Snow waited until we were in the narrow alleyway behind the shops and out of sight before she whirled on me, hands on her hips, eyes sharp as glass shards.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“It’s good to see you too, Snow,” I said.
Snow tipped her head toward the sky and sighed loudly. “You’re taking a terrible risk, you know that?”
“Says the terrible risk-taker,” I replied, smiling.
The last time I’d seen Snow, I was fleeing Kassian’s soldiers. She’d cut the seed from my neck and given me clothing and a bag of provisions. She’d saved my life, given me a ticket to freedom, all at considerable risk to herself.